The present invention relates to transmission of voice over a network and more particularly to troubleshooting low quality network services for high bandwidth events such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Voice over Wireless Local Area Networks (VoWLAN) networks and video transmission.
A converged network integrates data, voice and video traffic onto a single, Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure. With a converged network, a company can combine their telephone functions with their data management functions and realize an improved return on their investment. With the advent of digital telephone systems, companies can provide employees and customers with improved intelligent voice, data, messaging and mobility applications and services not possible with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or, as it is often referred to, the plain old telephone system (POTS).
The principal drivers behind converging voice and data networks are reduction in the total cost of network ownership and enhanced features and functions. For example, video telephone calls are now increasingly common and soon users will be able to access video data to watch a movie or a television show on their mobile telephone. However, with the increased availability of high speed Internet and wireless networks combined with voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology, converged networks will increasingly shoulder demand for increased bandwidth. Accordingly, one of the key challenges in deploying a converged network is to ensure that each type of user (such as a data user and a telephone user) is provided with high quality network services. Unfortunately, voice traffic demands reliable and consistent service quality and performance because any delay, noise or network congestion will cause audible problems that will have a negative impact on the ability to use and enjoy the converged network.
One solution is to allocate virtually all of the available bandwidth to the voice traffic and relegate other traffic a lower priority when traversing the network. However, this is not an acceptable solution because video and data users also require adequate bandwidth.
Even if the bandwidth is adequate to handle the voice, data and video traffic, voice users may notice other problems with their use of a converged network. For example, voice garbling, line echoes, lost packets that cause gaps of silence, line noise such as clicking, hissing, crackling, cross talk, hum, popping static or screeching may be generated across the network and distort the quality of the voice call. At other times, video users may notice poor buffering or other anomalies in receipt of a video stream.
Wireless networks add additional complexity to the problem of ensuring sufficient quality of service for voice and video users. For example, the connection may suffer from intermittent outages, connections may be dropped or there may be an inability to roam. Also, if the number of users in a certain area is high, it may be impossible to make a connection or to obtain any service for indefinite periods. All of these problems affect user satisfaction and need to be quickly corrected when the problems occur.
Many prior art tools attempt to resolve problems for users of a converged network. Some web-based tools require a user to open a trouble ticket and to define and preliminarily diagnose the problem they experienced. Because of the complexity of such tools, the participation rate has been traditionally low. Even when the users participate, the delay between the problem occurring and the report may render it impossible to determine the network conditions that existed when the problem occurred. Thus, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the source of the problem and correct it in a timely manner.
Other tools rely on commercially available tools such as Sniffer Pro, available from Network General Corporation of San Jose, Calif. or the protocol analyzer Ethereal, which is open source software released under the GNU General Public License, to capture and collect packets that define quality of service (QoS) parameters. Unfortunately, packet sniffing systems capture all traffic, all calls whether there are network problems or not. Then, when a problem occurs, significant effort is required to locate the network reports or logs that relate to the problem or to determine the root cause.
Yet additional diagnostic tools are available to monitor voice traffic on converged networks. These diagnostic tools monitor, report and log call quality, dropped calls and similar statistics but require a significant amount of bandwidth to function. Thus, these tools increase the cost of operating a converged network and reduce the savings that companies expect when converting to a converged network.
Clearly, what is needed is a system and method for determining network parameters when a user experiences a network problem during high bandwidth events such as a VoIP or VoWLAN telephone call or video streaming so that the problem can be corrected. Since these problems are most noticeable to voice and video users where real time packet delivery is necessary, whether coupled to the IP infrastructure or a wireless LAN, what is needed is a system and method for real time indication of a network problem and an indication of the type of problem being experienced.